Wednesday, April 28, 2010

This spring, Whitworth Assistant Professor of Art Katie Creyts was selected as one of 43 finalists out of roughly 300 artists from around the globe who submitted their artwork to the E-Merge 2010 Glass Competition, sponsored by the Portland, Ore.-based company Bullseye Glass. Her chosen work, made with kiln-formed glass, is titled, You Could Be Working So Much Harder.

"This piece happened from studio 'play,'" Creyts says. "I had been working on pieces that were quite involved and taking a long time and I was feeling stressed – like I needed to produce more. This piece is a response to those feelings."

She continues, "I came upon a coloring book image of Disney animals looking at Snow White in the forest and I thought about how the animals were showing concern and distance at once – 'We're sorry you're hurting, but we don't know how to help.' This inspired me to replace Snow White with the phrase, 'You could be working so much harder.' It is ironic, a bit silly, but also anxious."

E-Merge submissions were evaluated on quality of concept and content, craftsmanship, and design. Other finalists hailed from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Creyts' submission can be viewed until the closing of the E-Merge exhibition on Saturday, June 19, at the Bullseye Gallery, in Portland.

E-Merge is a juried kiln-glass exhibition for emerging artists sponsored by Bullseye Glass Co. — a manufacturer of colored glass for art and architecture with worldwide distribution and a strong commitment to education and promoting glass art. Hosted for the first time at Bullseye Gallery, the exhibition recognizes students and early-career artists who are rising through the ranks of kiln-formed studio glass. Bullseye Glass, provides the primary material used in glass classes at Whitworth.

Creyts is no amateur in terms of glass-working. E-Merge is the 39th exhibition in which she has shown her works, and she has since participated in the Teapot Invitational, in Pittsburgh, Pa.

"Glass is an amazing artist material," Creyts says. "My work is based on the shift from fiction to reality and I feel that glass, like my work, exists somewhere in between with its ability to be a liquid and a solid. I love playing with transparency, optics, color, etc. This medium affords all of these."

Joining the Whitworth faculty in 2008, Creyts received an M.F.A. from Illinois State University and a bachelor's degree from the Tyler School of Art, in Elkins Park, Pa.. She has held several teaching positions and residencies since 1992. She specializes in glass-blowing and hot-glass sculpture, and serves as supervisor of the Whitworth Art Department's new three-dimensional art degree track.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.